Letter: Citizens, mayor not a team

I am deeply concerned about the latest effort by Mayor (Scott) Fadness to transform 116th Street into the Fishers version of Manhattan with his latest $157 million development project. He stated, “We have to adapt and evolve for us to be sustainable in the long term,” yet all that has seemed to evolve are tax increases, such as a wheel tax on every car owned by Fishers residents, and a proposed tax increase to pay for removing the rail line and building a trail. What tax increase is coming next for this newest project?

All of the mayor’s proposals appear to be a done deal without much input from citizens. If, in fact, these projects are so beneficial to us, why is the city giving tax breaks, waiving fees and building a parking garage at taxpayer expense? All of this development also is short-sighted from an infrastructure perspective. Concerning 116th Street, Fadness has claimed that, “Nothing in our traffic counts shows more lanes are needed.” Of course, anyone driving on 116th Street at 5 p.m. would beg to differ – and the city’s counts are not including further expansion. Is the Fishers community truly on board with the mayor’s vision? I doubt it.